Testimony from the alleged victim took up most of the proceedings during the first day of the sexual abuse trial Thursday, of John Osborn of Council Bluffs. The 47-year old is charged with four counts of third-degree sexual abuse for alleged acts with a 14-year-old girl. The alleged victim played softball and was good friends with Osborn’s daughter. The Daily NonPareil reports in his opening statement Dan McGinn with the Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office described a relationship between Osborn and the alleged victim that started with a conversation at a softball game about whether the teenager was pretty. The pair started texting and having phone conversations, which quickly escalated to sexual in nature.
On the night of July 16-17, the girl stayed at the Osborn home to hang out with Osborn’s daughter. The 14-year-old said she was there to celebrate Osborn’s daughter making a select softball team. The teen testified that after Osborn’s wife had gone to bed, around midnight the daughter was asleep and Osborn told the teenager to make up her bed. The alleged victim said Osborn followed and pushed her up against a wall and kissed her, fulfilling a wish of his they’d discussed in a text. The two then engaged in four separate sex acts, the teen said. She said before and after each act, Osborn checked to make sure his daughter was still asleep.
In his opening statements, Defense attorney Jordan Glaser argued that John Osborn went to sleep at 11 p.m. on the night in question, joining his wife, who was already in bed. The defense said the two young girls went to bed around 11:45 p.m., with the daughter’s friend falling asleep quickly, while the daughter stayed up, tending to a new puppy and watching Netflix, until 3 a.m.
Glaser said testimony from Osborn’s wife and daughter will show Osborn was in bed by 11 p.m. and that the friend didn’t leave the bedroom, corroborating the defense’s assertion that no sexual acts happened that night. The defense attorney then admitted that Osborn had committed reprehensible acts communicating via text and phone about sexual topics with the alleged victim.
The girl’s mother testified that she found out about the relationship when she was looking at a photo on the victim’s phone and a text message came from Osborn, with a link to a love song. The first day of trial included the testimony of Council Bluffs Police Department detectives Chris Anderson and Mike Roberts, Nosimilo Dube with Child Protective Services, the victim’s aunt and the victim’s mother’s boss.
The trial is expected to resume this (Friday) morning.
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